A guide through the Nordic everyday lifestyle, feelings, hopes, fears, dreams, weaknesses and ideas, written by a passionate 34-year-old city marketer from Helsinki, Finland.

The story behind the Nordic Easter chick

Helsinki, 3 degrees

From small beginnings come great things.

One of my most popular Easter related blog posts told you 5 things that you didn't know about the Nordic Easter witch. Therefore, I thought that this year I might share with you the story of the Nordic Easter chick. In Finland, Easter is one of our most colorful festivities and it's a wonderful combination of traditions, historical habits and religious symbols. Needless to say, Easter is one of my favorites annual celebrations as in my family it's a true sign of returning sunlight & spring!

The fact that one of the characters that appear during Easter is a chick, naturally has to do with the strongest symbol of Easter - the egg. The egg is a symbol that is even older than Christianity, and functions as a symbol of life. Even before Christianity, Europeans workshipped Ēostre or Ostara (a Germanic goddess), whose symbol was the egg. Ancient Romans used eggs at their annual spring party - especially boiled eggs. Even the Jewish have been known to use boiled eggs as a part of their Easter traditions. Actually, the Swedish name for Easter (påsk) comes from the Jewish word pesach and/or Hebrew word pesah. The Finnish word (pääsiäinen) on the other hand is a word created by the father of literary Finnish, Mikael Agricola, and it means the end of fasting. Also according to the Finnish epic, Kalevala, the world got its start from an egg. The first documentations of people coloring eggs for Easter come from the monastery of Thessaloniki in Greece (10th century). The Easter egg tradition came to Finland from East through the Orthodox tradition during the 19th century.

The happy Easter chick is a character that one sees in Finland on old Easter posters, postcards and other festive decorations. As the egg, the chicks symbolize new life (Christ rising from his tomb), the tomb being the egg shell). Besides chicks, also hens and roosters symbolize new life and Easter in the Nordic countries. The Easter branches that children make and hand out during the holiday include feathers - also something that refers to the birds. However, it is the Easter rabbit, not the birds, that bring children Easter eggs. Happy Easter!Iloisen keltaisia kananpoikia hyppii ja temmeltää vanhanaikaisissa pääsiäisjulisteissa, koristeissa ja somien pikku pastilliaskien kansissa. Tiput symboloivat pääsiäisperinteessä uutta elämää. Myös kanat ja kukot kuuluvat Pohjolan pääsiäisperinteisiin. Onhan pääsiäisvitsoissa myös höyheniä, jotka viittaavaat lintuihin. Hassua sinänsä, kun se on kuitenkin pääsiäispupu (Saksasta tullut perinne), joka tuo munat pääsiäisenä eikä tipu, kana tai kukko. Hyvää pääsiäistä!

How familiar are you with the Nordic Easter traditions? Had you ever heard about the Easter chick before?